Preservaci\'on de la memoria colectiva-cient\'ifica, en la astronom\'ia argentina, desde el Observatorio de La Plata

TL;DR

This paper details the preservation, digitization, and scientific valorization of early 20th-century spectrophotometric plates from the La Plata Observatory, aiming to recover historical astronomical data and context.

Contribution

It introduces the ReTrOH project, which systematically recovers, digitizes, and contextualizes historic astronomical plates and documents from the La Plata Observatory.

Findings

Thousands of plates recovered and digitized

Historical spectra compared with modern data

Preservation enhances scientific and historical understanding

Abstract

This work describes the rescue and enhancement of several thousand spectrophotometric plates from the La Plata Observatory. These plates and their attached handwritten documents, date from the beginning of the 20th century and contain information on observations made at different observatories around the world. Due to their fragility and the inevitable deterioration produced by the passage of time, they are being cleaned up, recovered and digitized. The information contained in the plates has a high scientific value and, based on a comparison of an old spectrum with a current one, part of the history of the star can be reconstructed. Through the ReTrOH project, we seek to translate the document into an appropriate format, preserve and disseminate that knowledge, and also recover the scientific project and the historical and personal context of the observers. The digitized spectra are available in the virtual repository (SEDICI) of the UNLP.